The No-Plan Wonder

[jenparis05]

I came up with the idea of getting chickens. Husband was not TOO thrilled, but went along with it. We ended up buying one of those small, in a box, coops for our 4 chickens. We quickly found out it was just too small for our group of gals.

So, Husband decided to build a coop. This process started in June when we put the 8 4x4s in the ground. It is now August and we finally moved the girls in!!

In that time we lost two of our gals to predators But, today we just bought 4 more, bringing our small flock to 6.

This coop came from no plans, no googling, just out of Husband's head.....and many, MANY trips to Home Depot.

I'm quite proud of him for this accomplishment. He did an amazing job. There could be some changes, and it's still not done yet, but the girls seem to like it.

None of our girls have started laying yet (though our two oldest are 20 and 23 weeks old) so, we haven't divided out the nesting boxes (hoping to get 8). That's on the agenda to get done soon. Also, we're trying to figure out the best floor for the run. I'm thinking sand, but that hasn't been figured out yet. The final step will be to paint the hen house to match the house (grey, white, and cream).

 

[chickenchick123]

Looks great,well done! I think it's a good idea to have the whole side as a door will be helpful for cleaning.
I use wood shavings on my coop floor at the moment, haven't tried anything else though,works for my girls so far.x

 

[chfite]

Sand is great for the run.

You might want to think about some sort of guard around the exposed edges of the metal roofing on the nest box. Bandages and tetanus shots get expensive. You could slit open some pvc pipe and screw it over the edges and corners.

Chris

 

[vickichicki]

Very nice looking coop

As my runs are exposed on the sides I use a mass amount of shavings and straw, it gets bogged down during some of the heaviest rains but it is deep enough the girls feet stay dry. I would like to try sand at a later date but it will require some modifications to keep it contained and to stop it washing away.

Just a little info on the nest boxes. I have 9 laying girls in one coop, 4 nest boxes, they all use the same two everyday. So don't panic about not having enough.

 

[jenparis05]

Looks great,well done! I think it's a good idea to have the whole side as a door will be helpful for cleaning.
I use wood shavings on my coop floor at the moment, haven't tried anything else though,works for my girls so far.x

Thanks! Both ends open up as whole doors for easy cleaning. Now I think we should get one of those big long spatulas on a stick so we can scrap the poo out My husband did it so he could just get the blower and blow the shavings out the end.

Sand is great for the run.

You might want to think about some sort of guard around the exposed edges of the metal roofing on the nest box. Bandages and tetanus shots get expensive. You could slit open some pvc pipe and screw it over the edges and corners.

Chris

We've actually got some rubber sealing material and edging to do that exact idea on those metal edges. I didn't like the idea of metal at all on this coop. But, not my build, so my input is given little credibility

Very nice looking coop

As my runs are exposed on the sides I use a mass amount of shavings and straw, it gets bogged down during some of the heaviest rains but it is deep enough the girls feet stay dry. I would like to try sand at a later date but it will require some modifications to keep it contained and to stop it washing away.

Just a little info on the nest boxes. I have 9 laying girls in one coop, 4 nest boxes, they all use the same two everyday. So don't panic about not having enough.

Thanks! We just built out half the nesting boxes, so we should be OK for the time being

 

[jenparis05]

Here are updated pics.....

We ended up getting a load of sand today. Got that all spread out and leveled. I wanted something courser. We ended up with cement sand.




We also built out nesting boxes. I've heard that when chickens start doing the 'squat' instead of runaway, they might start laying soon... We only built out half of what the coop can hold, since we only have two chickens that will start laying any time soon.



And I have to show my girls. We started with 4 and lost 2 to predators These are our two oldest. They are 24 and 21 weeks old. Still waiting patiently for our first egg.



And our 4 new ones. Not too sure on their ages. But, the oldest is no longer cheeping. The other three are.